Quick News Update

Good:I read a trilogy of young adult books this week by Scott Westerfeld. The books are Uglies, Pretties, and Specials. There is a fourth book, Extras, that is set in the same world but not part of the same storyline as the trilogy that I hope to read soon. They are all set in a future world where society is highly stratified and regimented largely through the use of cosmetic surgery and explore some tricky issues such as looks, popularity, anorexia and cutting and other common mental health issues for teenagers, and environmentalism in some really interesting ways. Plus, they're just amazing stories (otherwise it wouldn't matter how well they explore issues because everyone would be bored and wouldn't read them). I may have to start recommending them to my middle and high school students (especially the girls). I'm also rereading the Chronicles of Narnia.

Bad:I got home from class today to discover two missed calls from my Dad. The message were a bit garbled and all I got out of them was Mom was taken to the emergency room today and will be having surgery tomorrow. Needless to say, I called Dad immediately. Her gallbladder has to come out. Apparently one of the doctors asked her if she was trying to set a record for largest gallstone ever and her answer to the question of "How bad is the pain on a scale of one to ten?" was "25." She is expected to be perfectly fine, but any surgery can have complications and this wasn't really what I was expecting or wanted to hear. The timing is less than perfect since my sister's father-in-law is getting married on Saturday and they're all supposed to be at the wedding. I've no clue how she'll be feeling by then.

Ugly:Well, this isn't really ugly, but that's the third line so that's what I'm calling this section...The teacher that has been working with me in this are wasn't able to finish her summer classes. So there is a new teacher who came in to do her last three weeks worth of classes. He is kind of cute and really tall. He is working on his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and focuses on short stories. He's come to realize this is something he can do without the degree and has fallen in love with teaching the little kids this summer and is thinking of going into education and continuing writing on the side. At the teaching site today, there were some deer grazing in a field just outside the window and he was really excited just to watch them. So he's cute and loves kids, reading, animals, and writing. Does that not sound perfect? Did I happen to mention they flew him in from Arizona to teach these classes and he is only here for three weeks? Damn it!